I agree with most of your assessment but I'm also left wondering HOW Richards doesn't display that kind of talent here. He's played 7 games between two of THE most offensively gifted players in the entire world. He can barely put up points with them. The 2 years in Dallas, IMMEDIATELY before signing here he put up 91 points in 80 games and 77 in 72. Are you telling me he's playing the exact same game here? Nothing changed? Because he went from 1.11 points per game to .81 points per game. I have to imagine he was making some pretty impressive plays to put up such good numbers in Dallas. Were his wingers that much better than Gaborik and Nash? Or does our system simply stifle creativity? I have a feeling our stamps out most of a players creativity and drills the cycle, cycle, cycle mentality in its place.

Agree 100%. The system we play and the fear he puts in players that make mistakes has created a tentative team in the offensive zone. We do not fight to the death for pucks. The second we sense we are losing the battle or will not get to a rebound in front we retreat. We never get to loose pucks in front of the net. My guess is because our forwards are already thinking defense and not getting caught. Safe is death I thought.

I was never a fan of stacking the first line. One of Torts' biggest flaws as a coach is impatience. He doesn't allow for offensive chemistry to develop with all the line shuffling and what he's missing is that our breakouts are also affected because our forwards just do not know what their linemates are going to do. This leads to too many neutral zone loose pucks that we should be carrying into the O-zone. And btw, the serial dump and chase is not going to work because we do not win enough 50/50 battles. And finally, Bickle (who i admire) cannot play in the National Hockey League, Rupp is unfortunately finished (never wins puck battles anymore), Boyle (who is doing much better in the dot) cannot do anything offensively...ever. On a positive note, I thought Gilroy played a good game.